Raffkind: Refugees need at least same consideration as animals

When animals are abandoned and left in the streets, we feel as though we have an obligation to try to find their owners or take them to an animal shelter.

When children are neglected, abandoned, or abused, we sense a moral responsibility to care for them and, as a society, we have established a foster care system to help meet their needs.

Yet, when a group of individuals have been forced to flee their native country and they have become political refugees with no place to go, we have a different attitude. Even though a large number of them are women and children, we are reluctant to accept them in our country and view them with suspicion and scorn.

Unfortunately, this is the situation with Syrian refugees.

Granted, there’s a difference between abandoned animals, children, and refugees. The refugees are foreign born, speak a different language, have different customs and values, and are predominantly non-Christian.

Those with isolationist views logically point out that what happens in Europe and particularly Muslim countries is not our problem. We are not our brother’s keepers, and we have enough children who are born in this country who need assistance with limited resources.

For example, they point to the crisis we are currently having in our foster care system, where there aren’t enough caseworkers and facilities to take care of the needs of foster children. On the other hand, there are those who argue that helping others in need is part of what it means to be an American. We cannot just close our eyes to suffering no matter where it occurs, and as long as we belong to the United Nations, it is our responsibility to help those who need humanitarian assistance.

President-elect Donald Trump has modified many of his campaign promises since being elected. Yet, during his campaign he used the Syrian refugees as scapegoats, claiming that they were terrorists and they were intent on destroying our country. Once these ideas were suggested, they spread quickly on social media, and those with xenophobia were quick to confirm the false belief.

As a result, when President Barack Obama pledged to provide safe haven in the United States for 10,000 Syrian refugees (approximately 2 percent of the 480,000 refugees needing resettlement), this fueled a wave of paranoia.

Compounding the issue, whenever violent terrorist attacks occurred in Europe, Trump capitalized on the tragedies, and warned that letting Syrian refugees into the U.S. would increase chances of an attack on American soil. (Again, keep in mind that the vast majority of Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. were women and children.)

Trump created even more Islamophobia by blurring the distinction between refugees and illegal immigrants. As a result, whenever an illegal immigrant committed an unlawful act, refugees were targeted for blame. Trump conveniently overlooked the fact that refugees are in this country legally, and that they are rigorously scrutinized and vetted before being admitted, a process often taking between 18 and 24 months.

According to an Oct.. 16 segment on “60 Minutes,” refugees are interviewed multiple times for their vital statistics, including where they came from and whom they know. If approved, the refugee goes through medical screening by a team of doctors prior to arriving in the United States. Once admitted to the United States, a State Department resettlement center takes over, runs background checks and creates a file on the refugee. From there, the Department of Homeland Security conducts additional interviews, and all this information is then run through U. S. security databases for red flags.

Despite the extensive vetting, as the 2016 election drew closer and the rhetoric more inflammatory, what started out as a humanitarian crisis became a political issue. As a result, when Obama declared that the U. S. would accept even more Syrian refugees, Texas joined 30 other states in calling a halt to the program.

According to an Sept. 26 Amarillo Globe-News article, this will have little impact on the number of refugees who come to Amarillo. What will happen is that the refugee’s sponsors will side-step Health and Human Services and use another “volag,” or agency that has cooperative agreements with the State Department for placement of refugees.

It would be naive and unrealistic to ignore the fact that the refugees do pose their share of problems. The very number of languages and dialects alone strains the law enforcement and health care systems and complicates the education of public school children.

At the same time, the refugees settling here enrich our lives and those of our children. When children have contact with the refugees, they learn about different customs and values. They recognize how fortunate they are to have the opportunities that so many take for advantage. In just a few years, children of refugees will become fluent in both their native language and English, and they can assist with translation issues.

Bigotry and prejudice are learned and can be unlearned. Now that the election is over, let’s hope President-elect Trump will become less radical. Let’s hope that once again we can become a compassionate America and give these refugees the same considerations we show stray animals or abused children.

Myrna Raffkind is retired from the behavioral sciences faculty at West Texas A&M University. She was Amarillo Globe-News Woman of the Year in 2010. She lives in Amarillo and volunteers with many nonprofit groups.